During his year as a foreign exchange student in the US, 18-year-old Carlos Villarreal lived not with a welcoming family, but with two ex-convicts in a seedy house that smelled of dog feces where the food was labeled ?O NOT TOUCH.?He left 6kg lighter.
Villarreal, a Colombian, had signed up for a pricey study-abroad program that promised an ?nforgettable year?in the US. What he and many other exchange students in northeastern Pennsylvania got instead was a year filled with shabby treatment bordering on abuse.
? just wanted it to end,?he says.
The situation in the Scranton region has rocked the US foreign exchange establishment, raising questions about measures that are supposed to keep students safe and their stays positive.
In Scranton, students were placed in wretched living conditions by Aspect Foundation, a California nonprofit that brings about 1,000 exchange students to the US each year. Some students were found to be malnourished, while others lived in filthy, cramped homes, at least one of which was later condemned. Aspect said it deplores what happened in Scranton but that its overall record is good.
Exchange agencies should secure a host family and a school before a student arrives, but that doesn? always happen.
Villarreal, from the northern Colombian mining town of La Guajira, had hoped to gain maturity and independence before heading off to college. But from the 衫oment his plane touched US soil, he knew something was wrong: Edna Burgette, the veteran Aspect placement counselor responsible for his welfare, had nowhere for him to stay.
As soon as he got to Scranton, Burgette walked him from door to door in the city of 75,000, begging people to take him in and ?asically selling me like a piece of meat,?he said.
When there were no takers, Villarreal went to live in an area of dilapidated homes with Burgette? elderly companion, the one who guarded his food.
Anne Bardoz was even more desperate than her friend Villarreal.
Burgette placed the 16-year-old student from Tonsberg, Norway, with a family that couldn? afford to support her. A month later, 耑urgette sent her to a filthy three-room apartment already crowded with three other people. The floors were strewn with animal feces; the dog urinated on her bed and clothes.
A grand jury has launched a criminal investigation. Burgette, who was paid US$400 for each student she placed, did not respond to requests for comment. The State Department hit Aspect with penalties including a 15 percent reduction in the number of visas it can distribute next school year.
Aspect fired Burgette, saying she had used ?ppalling judgment,?and accepted the resignations of two of her immediate supervisors. It also temporarily stopped accepting new students, sent surveys to students already in the US and touted an ?xchange Student Bill of Rights.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS